Ohio unit owners just won a jury right on condominium damages claims
Ohio unit owners just won a jury right on condominium damages claims
2026-09-15 · Ohio · Courts
An Ohio appellate court has held that a unit owner suing over breach of a condominium's governing documents is entitled to a jury on the damages claim — and that an association cannot steer the case into a bench trial by framing the dispute as an injunction.1
Porter v. Hammond North Condominium Association, 2025-Ohio-2210, was decided by the First District on June 25, 2025, out of Hamilton County. After fires damaged common areas and units, owners sued the association and board over a repair and assessment Plan and Policy, pleading both damages for breach of the governing documents and injunctive relief. The association counterclaimed for an injunction. The trial court tried everything to the bench and disposed of the owners' damages claim in the same judgment.
Reversed and remanded.
A declaration is not just a contract
The court first recharacterised the claim: “what Appellants have styled as a breach-of-contract claim is, in truth, an action for breach of the condominium's governing documents under R.C. 5311.19(A).” (¶ 43)
Then it explained why that matters:
“Ohio has created a scheme to impose upon each condominium unit CCRs enshrined in statutes, deeds, declarations, and by-laws. These obligations run with the unit they burden and inure to the benefit of all others…A condominium declaration is thus 'more than a mere contract'; 'it assumes some of the attributes of a covenant running with the land.'” (¶ 60)
Because covenants running with the land were creations of the common law rather than equity, the constitutional jury-trial right attaches to a damages claim for their breach — even though the cause of action is statutory.
The sequencing rule
The holding that matters most for boards is about what happens when legal and equitable claims are mixed:
“we hold that, where a plaintiff brings both claims to which a jury right attaches and claims to which it does not, and where those claims involve common factual issues, the plaintiff has a right to have those common issues tried to a jury in the first instance, unless they are truly 'dependent' upon and 'incidental' to the threshold resolution of the non-jury claims.” (¶ 81)
And on the association's institutional character, a line worth noting on its own: “A unit owners association is a representative body that acts on behalf of the owners.” (¶ 62)
The conclusion: “Appellants were entitled to a jury on their claim for damages under their second cause of action.” (¶ 90)
Forum is often decided before a dispute begins. Our Ohio mediation and dispute resolution page covers the alternatives to a trial.
What changes in practice
The bench-trial route is closed where the facts are contested. The pattern Porter forecloses is a common one: an association facing a damages claim files or supports an injunction action, the whole matter is tried to a judge, and the owner's damages claim is resolved on the judge's findings. After Porter, if the two claims share live factual issues, those issues go to a jury first.
For a board, that changes the budget and the posture. A jury hears a repair dispute differently from a judge. The facts that play well — water coming through a ceiling for two years, a board that stopped answering letters, an assessment levied to pay for something the owner says was the association's fault — are exactly the facts an association loses on in front of twelve people. Our Ohio governing statute page covers what R.C. 5311.19 requires of both sides.
The counterweight sitting in the Tenth District
There is a mechanism Ohio courts have upheld that contracts around all of this. In Leveque 41, L.L.C. v. Leveque Tower Condominium Association, 2025-Ohio-2055, decided June 10, 2025, the Tenth District affirmed an order compelling arbitration of unit owners' claims about assessments and the reserve fund, under a mandatory arbitration clause in the amended bylaws.
The owners argued the clause was void as against public policy and conflicted with R.C. chapter 5311. The court disagreed:
“Though R.C. 5311.19(A) provides for a cause of action, nothing in the language of the statute either requires resolution through civil litigation or precludes arbitration.” (¶ 34)
Even the declaration's own savings clause — “In the event any language of this Declaration conflicts with mandatory provisions of the Condominium Act, the latter's requirements shall prevail” — did not rescue the owners.
So the Ohio position is: a unit owner has a jury right on a 5311.19(A) damages claim, unless the bylaws took it away first.
Where boards and owners each stand
For a board. Read your bylaws for an arbitration clause and find out whether you have one. If you do, it is more valuable than most boards realise and should not be waived by inadvertently litigating on the merits. If you do not, understand that any contested repair or special-assessment dispute is now a potential jury trial, and price settlement accordingly.
Adding a clause is a real decision, not a formality. Arbitration keeps disputes private and usually cheaper, but it also removes the association's own access to a jury, narrows appeal rights, and can look to a court like an association insulating itself from review. It requires a bylaw amendment and it should be put to the members honestly.
For an owner. Read the bylaws before you buy, and read them again before you sue. The forum question is decided by a document most purchasers never open, and it is worth more than most of the substantive clauses they do read.
For both. Note the tension with the Ninth District's approach in Rosen v. Cobblestone Lane, which keeps attorney-fee entitlement with the court even where a jury tried the damages. One statute, three districts, three different answers about who decides what — and the Supreme Court of Ohio has not resolved it.
Related Ohio HOA Topics
Stay on top of Ohio HOA law
Every week: new Ohio legislation, court rulings, and regulatory developments affecting condos, planned communities, and property managers. Free.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.